Lenny Henry On Comedy, Dramatic Acting & Returning To Stand-Up

What did Eddie Murphy say to Lenny Henry? In this Monday episode of The Romesh Ranganathan Show, Romesh is joined by the legendary comedian, actor, and writer, Sir Lenny Henry. The pair look back at Lenny’s incredible career, from his early stand-up and TV shows, to his latest projects. They discuss racism, realities of working in the entertainment industry, and the pressure that comes with a long career. Lenny talks about his return to stand-up with his new tour, Lenny Henry: Still at Large, and his new BBC show,The Split Up (available on BBC iPlayer now). Plus, they deep dive into the world of being a stand-up comedian, inspirations, and how it's changed over the years. Elsewhere, Romesh and Lenny get into self-care, manscaping, and some questionable fashion choices, and Lenny opens up about death, grief, and some of the lessons he’s learned throughout his life. Plus, Shanthi has a bone to pick with Romesh... A fascinating conversation about comedy, careers, ageing, loss, and what it takes to keep going. Buy tickets to Lenny's tour 'Still at Large' with dates until November 4, 2026. A Ranga Bee Production in partnership with Platform Media. If therapy is something you've been thinking about, visit Counselling Directory and find a therapist that's right for you: https://www.counselling-directory.org.uk/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=romesh_sponsorship Chapters 00:00 Intro 03:46 When Lenny and Romesh met 05:20 A gift for Lenny 08:34 Lenny’s career 13:53 On True Identity 17:30 On chef and career mentality 18:54 The challenges of the industry 20:44 Lenny reads Romesh 22:45 Self-care and manscaping 25:20 Fashion faux pas 29:29 The upcoming tour and being on stage 40:06 A question from Shanthi on impressions 43:54 The Split Up 29:38 Misquoted 57:11 On death and grief 58:45 Some advice from Lenny 59:59 Outro Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

• 0:00Speaker 00

  Who do you support?

• 0:00Speaker 01

  West Bromwich Albion. So forgive me for everybody for for really, Lisa supports Man City, my partner Lisa. So I'm literally an adjacent Man City fan now. And I'm literally, I'm in it now. I don't support them, but I'm in it. I have to sit and watch the matches.

• 0:14Speaker 00

  You want them to win the league?

• 0:15Speaker 01

  I kind of want them to win because that'll make my life easy.

• 0:18Speaker 00

  Oh, I see.

• 0:19Speaker 01

  If they win, it's my life is easy for us that day.

• 0:23Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 0:24Speaker 01

  There's no bad tempered people around. Her mum is rabid. Her mum just screams at the screen.

• 0:30Speaker 00

  We're rolling now, you know this.

• 0:32Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah. You can't have any of that other stuff I just said about Lisa and her mum. Love Doris. Doris, we love you. Say, I love you, Doris, everybody.

• 0:41Speaker 00

  Yeah, love you, Doris.

• 0:42Speaker 01

  We love you, Doris.

• 0:43Speaker 00

  And it's good that you're passionate, Doris.

• 0:44Speaker 01

  Yeah, man. Passion is good.

• 0:46Speaker 00

  Yeah, okay.

• 0:46Speaker 01

  Start the interview now.

• 0:47Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 0:49Speaker 01

  Hi, my name is Lenny Henry. I'm going to be on the Romesh Ranganathan Show soon. Coming to a device or a computer or an iPad near you.

• 1:08Speaker 02

  Oh, shut up, Ramesh.

• 1:13Speaker 00

  This episode is brought to you by Counseling Directory. I've been very open about my mental health struggles over the years. I've tried everything from meditation to hypnotherapy. I like to keep an open mind. But something that's really helped me is therapy. I think it can be great if you struggle with anxiety, if you're going through something like a breakup or a loss. It can also be really good if you just need someone to talk to that isn't your partner or your dog. Sometimes it can though feel like even finding a therapist is an uphill struggle. Where do I look? Are they legit? How do I know who's going to be right for me? So that's why I think Counseling Directory is so great. It helps you find a therapist that's right for you, whether you want to see someone face to face or online. They have over 29,000 therapists and counsellors across the UK.

• 1:56Speaker 00

  So even if you're picky, you should be able to find someone. And all of the therapists on the directory are verified. You can take the time to read their personal profiles, learn a bit about them and how they work, and then contact the ones that you like in your own time. And that, I think, makes the whole thing a little bit less scary. If you've been thinking about therapy, visit Counselling Directory and find a therapist that's right for you.

• 2:21Speaker 03

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• 2:52Speaker 00

  My guest today is an actor, comedian, writer and knight of the realm. Over the last 50 years, his comedic brilliance has lit up kids TV, sitcoms and sketch shows. In 1985, he harnessed his love of making people laugh with fundraising, co-founding Comic Relief, which to date has raised over 1.6 billion pounds for charities around the world. He's also become an acclaimed dramatic actor on stage and on screen, as well as being a passionate advocate for diversity in the industry. He's also an absolute legend. It's Lenny Henry, everybody.

• 3:28Speaker 01

  What a lovely introduction. Thank you so much. Beautifully read.

• 3:30Speaker 00

  Thank you. Was there anything that you'd like to have given a bit more oomph to? Do you know what I mean?

• 3:37Speaker 01

  I don't know. Listen, you didn't mention tis waz, and that's a blessing sometimes. Because every, everything, everywhere I go on the street in the shops, Lenny, tis waz, yeah. I get that a lot. It's like literally.

• 3:48Speaker 00

  Do you ever get?

• 3:49Speaker 01

  Faganda, my friend. Fifty years ago, I get that. Taxis, Uber, look, a faganda, okay. I still have that. Literally the first thing I ever did. Best thing you ever did. I thought, okay, thanks. Thank you. I love my people. I love my people who come up to me in the street, but literally I just did, I won an award for doing fences. Okay, where's split the dog? I get that.

• 4:15Speaker 00

  No, we've met a few times.

• 4:17Speaker 01

  I've met you a few times. I don't know you. I don't know you and we are acquaintances.

• 4:20Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 4:21Speaker 01

  But I kind of, the last, the last couple of times I said, well, yeah, we should have dinner and it's never happened.

• 4:25Speaker 00

  It's not happened, yeah.

• 4:26Speaker 01

  We've not had dinner.

• 4:27Speaker 00

  But that's not the.

• 4:28Speaker 01

  You don't want me to be in your house, do you?

• 4:30Speaker 00

  Yeah, I do.

• 4:32Speaker 01

  You don't want me to meet my mum properly or Lisa or anything?

• 4:34Speaker 00

  No, I do, I do, I do.

• 4:35Speaker 01

  Because my missus is called Lisa too. They'd get on really well.

• 4:37Speaker 00

  They would. Well, we talked about it, but then, you know, sometimes, I mean, was that?

• 4:42Speaker 01

  You expected me to invite you to my house?

• 4:44Speaker 00

  No, I'm not saying that. I just.

• 4:46Speaker 01

  Because you could. Or maybe a pub nearby, because obviously.

• 4:49Speaker 00

  Because you don't want me in your house?

• 4:50Speaker 01

  Exactly, yeah. I mean, I think it would be, I think if the neighbours saw us together, it'd be difficult.

• 4:56Speaker 00

  In what way?

• 4:57Speaker 01

  If we went to a.

• 4:57Speaker 00

  Why would it be difficult?

• 4:58Speaker 01

  Two brothers walking down the street where I live. It's bad enough when it's just me. Are you nuts? Me and you walking down the street, but I was.

• 5:06Speaker 00

  Can you imagine? There goes the neighbourhood.

• 5:09Speaker 01

  What are they talking about?

• 5:10Speaker 00

  Well, I'd love that, though.

• 5:11Speaker 01

  We should do that.

• 5:12Speaker 00

  We should actually, no, but we should actually do it.

• 5:14Speaker 01

  No, I want to do it.

• 5:14Speaker 00

  No, we should actually do it. Well, let's commit to it now.

• 5:16Speaker 01

  No, but you're very busy. 14 podcasts a week, traitors and that advert. Wait, what? Listen, you ain't got no time to be. Maybe when you're like my age, you'll want to do it. Lenny, can we meet up? No, I'll be dead.

• 5:27Speaker 00

  When I'm your age.

• 5:27Speaker 01

  You'll be in my grave going, Lenny, I'm sorry. We didn't meet up for dinner. I'm sorry, you're dead. Maybe Tuesday after that other thing I've got to do.

• 5:36Speaker 00

  I'll come to your funeral and I'll go, I'll go to Lisa, dodge that bullet.

• 5:41Speaker 00

  Managed to swerve that. I told you we could wait him out.

• 5:44Speaker 01

  Oh, God, man. This is awful. I'm hating this. Why did I agree to do this?

• 5:51Speaker 00

  Right, listen, we've got your present.

• 5:55Speaker 01

  Have you paid my licence fee?

• 5:59Speaker 00

  Have a look.

• 5:59Speaker 01

  Is this a bicycle?

• 6:00Speaker 00

  Yeah, I think you'll be excited about this.

• 6:06Speaker 00

  No, they're, they're not what they.

• 6:08Speaker 01

  Oh, is this, is this, is this branding? Is this, is this, oh, this is the gin bar.

• 6:15Speaker 00

  So they look like chocolate bars, but they're not.

• 6:17Speaker 01

  Oh. Oh, that's fantastic. You're going to be vexed though, don't you?

• 6:25Speaker 00

  Who? Lisa?

• 6:26Speaker 01

  Because Lisa does the gardening and she's got a shed. So she's going to be vexed that this isn't, this doesn't say Lisa's shed.

• 6:32Speaker 00

  Hold on, are there, hold on. Have you got two sheds or one shed?

• 6:35Speaker 01

  No, no, she's got a shed. She does all the gardening.

• 6:37Speaker 00

  But you don't have a shed?

• 6:38Speaker 01

  Why would I do that?

• 6:40Speaker 00

  I don't know. I, I thought you had a shed that you went off to to, I don't know what you're doing there.

• 6:43Speaker 01

  The thing about gardening is it frightens me because we've got a big garden and if I go out there and start ploughing fields and digging up things, I slightly worry that I'm going to hear, nobody knows the trouble I've seen. Nobody knows my, I feel it's a bit slightly.

• 6:59Speaker 00

  No, I get that.

• 7:00Speaker 01

  Eighteenth century, pre-Civil War America.

• 7:02Speaker 00

  Okay, well, this, this slightly undermines the other presents we've got you.

• 7:05Speaker 01

  Oh, is it a shovel?

• 7:06Speaker 00

  We'll just have a look.

• 7:07Speaker 01

  Is it a shovel? Is it? You've got me three chocolate bars.

• 7:10Speaker 00

  Yeah, no, they're not chocolate bars. Look, what, what they are is you plant these in the, look, you stick them in the ground and it's different things. So these, this is lemon basil cucumber wild bergamo.

• 7:22Speaker 01

  Oh, this is fantastic.

• 7:24Speaker 00

  Yeah. And then there's a chili one. The red hot one is Chili's.

• 7:27Speaker 01

  Very good. I see what they did there. And it's called a grow bar.

• 7:31Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 7:31Speaker 01

  Grow your own fiery Chili's.

• 7:32Speaker 00

  It's apparently idiot proof. No, I didn't mean, I didn't, so I didn't mean to say that with the stank that I said it with.

• 7:38Speaker 01

  No, you stank that all out.

• 7:39Speaker 00

  No, but they're.

• 7:40Speaker 01

  You've obviously seen me try to do the recycling on my own.

• 7:42Speaker 00

  But you just drop them in the ground. I think, I don't know, it's got the instructions there. I don't know. Don't try and remember what I've said to you.

• 7:47Speaker 01

  This is brilliant. Thank you so much. What a very thoughtful gift that is.

• 7:50Speaker 00

  Are you a chili guy?

• 7:51Speaker 01

  Huh? Yeah, I like chili. I couldn't go on hot ones, though. Have you, you know that show where?

• 7:55Speaker 00

  Yeah, the, the wings.

• 7:57Speaker 01

  It looks really.

• 7:58Speaker 00

  How hot can you, how hot can you go?

• 8:00Speaker 01

  Well, I've had, my sister Kay, if, if you're watching this, Kay, you'll remember this. One time, because I used to take the meat off Kay's plate when I was a kid, she's four years older than me. And I used to take the meat off her plate when she wasn't looking. And this one day she decided to get me back and dip this big piece of meat in Scotch bonnet for quite a long time. Just did that. And then put it on the edge of her plate near me. And then I, I waited till she was looking at the. Then for an hour after.

• 8:31Speaker 01

  This is the.

• 8:34Speaker 01

  And mum will, yes, that's right. And you won't do that again, will you? You won't do that again, will you, ever? No.

• 8:42Speaker 01

  Under the tap for like 45 minutes in the cold tap. And I didn't do it again. And she taught me. Kay was a superhero to me. She used to come and, when I was being bullied on the way to school, Kay would show up like and beat up people on my behalf. So I shouldn't have been taking the meat off her plate. So with all due respect to my big sister who came to rescue me, I shouldn't have taken the meat off your plate.

• 9:04Speaker 00

  You've managed to maintain a level of longevity that is remarkable.

• 9:10Speaker 01

  I thought you were going to say defies belief.

• 9:12Speaker 00

  Yeah, that is so disproportionate to what you deliver on screen and on stage.

• 9:19Speaker 01

  There you are. See, that's what I expected. I mean, literally, you're rubbish. How have you managed to last this long?

• 9:24Speaker 00

  Like, what is the secret? You just, how many times can you polish that turd? No, but do you, you can't have known that you were going to manage that, but did, is there a philosophy that you think you've had that has helped you to do that?

• 9:36Speaker 01

  It wasn't, it just work hard. I, I never.

• 9:41Speaker 01

  It's really odd being the only one for a really long time.

• 9:45Speaker 00

  Hmm.

• 9:45Speaker 01

  Uh, I was the only one. I was doing work in my clubs. I was having racial abuse thrown at me off and on stage. I was having to deal with that. I was having to learn how to do my job in real time in front of audiences. There was no Edinburgh for me. There was no going, going to the Comedy Store and doing a tight five or anything. It was just literally thrown into the deep end and go, go on then. And I'd already be, I was already famous. So the weird thing was I was already famous. Sixty million people had seen my debut. They liked me and now they were showing up in clubs expecting me to have a tight hour.

• 10:17Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 10:17Speaker 01

  And I didn't have a tight hour for a really long time. It took, it took ages. And um, it was just bizarre being, having to learn on the job. And so frankly, once I got used to this thing of, well, you know, that ten minutes is now okay, you can move on to the next, you know, working on the hour for a really long time. I started to think this is gonna be my life now, just learning, learning, polishing, relearning, getting rid of that bit that doesn't work, slotting in a new bit. It just became my role to learn as I went along and to get as much advice from people who are respected as possible. So I talked to everybody, Bob Monkhouse, now Chris Tarrant, Frank Carson. I talked to all the comedians that were in, famous in my time.

• 10:59Speaker 01

  Sounds like, you know, the ancient Greeks now, but these were the people that I were, was doing gigs with in the clubs, Bobby Nutt. And they all, what's great about old people in showbiz, they all wanna give, you sit there lad, and let me tell you about me. You know, you don't do politics in comedy, you know, leave that for at home. When you get on stage, your job is to make them laugh. You know, I had that a lot of times. And um, I heard, you know, wear a nice suit, look better than they do. I heard, walk around, let them have a look at you. I had, you know, um, don't swear. You know, I had, I had lots of advice from all of these people, all of which was bollocks, by the way. Um, and I just listened and I tried to learn and I tried different things out. And I stole, I took a lot, I, I did other people's jokes sometimes.

• 11:41Speaker 00

  Everybody was stealing, right?

• 11:42Speaker 01

  Everybody stole, everybody stole. Cause there was a period in light entertainment where it was like all bets were off with all jokes. You just did the joke that worked for you in that moment.

• 11:52Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 11:52Speaker 01

  And the idea of developing your own sense of humour, your own style, was sort of weird because why would you? There's all these jokes that you can just have. Um, and so I was from school, over till about nineteen eighty-four, I was doing all the jokes that people did. Tommy Cooper jokes, Frank Carson jokes, my wife was a redhead, no hair, just a redhead. I was doing that for the longest time. And um, and then when I, when I was doing Three of a Kind, uh, which was my first big TV series, you know, eight, between eight and ten million viewers on a Saturday night, whatever it was, um. The producer said, well, maybe you should do some stand-up. You start thinking about who you are and maybe you should start. And God bless that person, Paul Jackson, I think. He sent Kim Fuller to come and see me, do my act in Luton.

• 12:37Speaker 01

  And um, it was a club gig, it was for a week. And basically, Kim came and stayed for the week. And we just, the stuff I was doing on Three of a Kind, Kim just said, well, why don't you do Deacon's here? Why don't you do Delbert here? Why don't you do the blues singer? Why don't you do? And he just had all these ideas and yeah, we could do some chat. He called it chat. And I said, do you mean like, you know, Richard Pryor does chat? He said, yeah. Why don't you do stuff about your childhood? Why don't you do stuff about dating? And why don't you do stuff about music? And do it like Richard Pryor would do it. And he was my hero. I wouldn't dream of, I just thought, well, you can't do that, can you? And we started to have conversations like, you know, when you, you know, that co-writing, when you're with a mate.

• 13:14Speaker 00

  But that, wasn't that week that you spent, that was when you locked in the show that you would end up doing for quite a long time, right? That was like, you got the formula.

• 13:22Speaker 01

  After a week or two weeks, we got the formula of what the show was gonna be. It was gonna be, you come on, maybe you have music and I, I, after a while it was bad jokes. I used to do a funk hip-hop thing called Bad Jokes where I did jokes with music. And uh, we'd orchestrated it and so there'd be horn, then beep, coming in, in the middle of jokes. It was great. And um, we did that, that week. And we did, um, we wrote a Delbert, we wrote a Deacon's, we wrote, um, and we wrote all the chat. And it was, it was one of the most, I won't say it was one of the, I won't say it was the best thing that ever happened to me, but it changed my life that week.

• 13:58Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 13:58Speaker 01

  And then Kim was, Kim was my um, soulmate in terms of comedy. We'd just sit down like this and we'd just think of funny things to say and do. And then I would go and do them and it would always work. And for, and for ten years, and we, we worked together throughout the eighties and into the nineties. We just, it was amazing. And then I went away to America. When I came back, I didn't work with Kim anymore. And um, I love Kim. We, we.

• 14:22Speaker 00

  Deliberately?

• 14:23Speaker 01

  No, I, I did a terrible film called Try Identity that Eddie Murphy was gonna do and then Eddie walked away from it. And um, and while I was making it, I found out why.

• 14:33Speaker 01

  And when I met Eddie, when I met Eddie, I met Eddie at this place called the, the China White Club in LA. He said, yo, yo, man. I said, hey, Lenny Henry. I said, yeah. He said, did you do that movie? I said, yeah, I did it. He said, can't you read?

• 14:55Speaker 01

  That's some dog shit, man.

• 14:57Speaker 00

  What, because, but that.

• 14:58Speaker 01

  It was really, it was funny.

• 14:59Speaker 00

  Yeah, but when you did that film, you're very honest about it when you, you talk about it in your book. What's really sad is that, you know, it felt, it felt like a really mad moment just before you come back to the UK. You tell this story about like going and seeing, I think it's the head of the studio.

• 15:15Speaker 01

  Katzenberg.

• 15:16Speaker 00

  Yeah, uh, after that, he was sort of, you have a meeting before and then you have a meeting after.

• 15:20Speaker 01

  Yeah, you have a meeting when you're, when you're hot. Your name is above the title in a Disney movie. It's not, it's not a little thing. And I just thought, well, this is it. This is my life now. I literally thought, and then I got out there. And I just thought, oh, this is forty-five drafts of the script. They've gone through the colours four times. You know, you get a pink script and a blue script. They've gone through the rainbow.

• 15:39Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 15:40Speaker 01

  Several times.

• 15:41Speaker 00

  So were you starting to panic?

• 15:42Speaker 01

  It wasn't getting any better.

• 15:43Speaker 00

  Were you starting to panic at this stage?

• 15:44Speaker 01

  Because I trusted it. And the people they got on were the people who wrote um, Father of the Bride, the people that wrote Overboard. And the people that, and then the director did a version, it was like three feet thick. And I thought, this is not getting any better. This isn't getting any better. They couldn't get it under my door, it was so thick. And I was reading it and going, this is, and the worst thing is, and you get this feeling of, oh, this isn't, this is so far away from what I do back at home, because impressionist and I'm a mimic and comic and all that kind of stuff. But this isn't what I do anymore. This is their version of what they think I should do.

• 16:19Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 16:20Speaker 01

  And a braver person would have said, I'm really sorry, but I need to step away from this. It's not what I do. But I was so, huh, I'm in a Hollywood movie and I've gotta, I, I need to get this. I was so like that, like a lamb to the slaughter.

• 16:32Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 16:33Speaker 01

  I just stuck it through. And um, it was, I got to meet James Earl Jones and I got to meet um, you know, Quincy Jones and people, I got to meet lots of people. Because when you have the name above the title in a Disney movie, everybody comes to see you. So the Motown production company came to see me, I met the Huddlin Brothers, who'd just done some big movie. Um, and I love the Huddlin Brothers. So it was a weird thing to be in a, in a movie that wasn't gonna be any good. And by about halfway through, I knew it wasn't gonna be any good. Um, and I was, and the good, the lucky thing was, was that I played a white guy for two thirds of the movie. So quite a lot of people didn't know it was me in the film.

• 17:14Speaker 01

  Even my sister didn't recognise me. My sister came to see me filming one day and walked right past me when I was in the white guy makeup. And I, and I had to say, Sharon, I can't believe you'd walk past me like this. You're talking, why is that American guy talking with a totally accent? And it was literally, it was a, it was a, quite a humiliating thing to come back. And I had to start my career all over again. And, and I did, we'd had the idea for Chef already and we'd started to work on Chef. I started a production company, cause I wanted to control my work.

• 17:43Speaker 00

  Hmm.

• 17:44Speaker 01

  Cause there weren't any black production companies then. And Crucial Films made Chef and I was really proud of that show.

• 17:49Speaker 00

  Great show.

• 17:49Speaker 01

  Then we did the Lenny Henry Show in that period and we made Funky Black Shorts and we did quite a lot of stuff. So I was really proud of that.

• 17:56Speaker 00

  But not that I'm trying to take you to a negative place, but you, you, you went to make Chef. Your headspace, I think you, you have to be pretty robust to go and do a film. Film doesn't work out the way you want to and then you go again.

• 18:09Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 18:10Speaker 00

  Is a, is a pretty, I mean, you've, you've sort of thrown it away when you've explained it there, but it's a pretty massive thing to be able to do.

• 18:15Speaker 01

  I think you need to, um. When you have a thing that doesn't work, I think it's really important to have the moment.

• 18:26Speaker 01

  Have that.

• 18:27Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 18:27Speaker 01

  And then you've got to move on.

• 18:29Speaker 00

  Got you.

• 18:29Speaker 01

  And your, your catchphrase for a while has got to be, I get knocked down, but I'll get up again. Your catchphrase has to be that.

• 18:35Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 18:36Speaker 01

  For any time you're feeling down.

• 18:37Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 18:38Speaker 01

  You've got to be going, I'm gonna come back. You can wallow and you can be stuck there for a long time and don't listen. There's a way, there's sometimes when you sit on the bog afterwards, you, you kind of have a moment, but you've got to flush and move on. So I kind of feel like for a year or so, while we were writing Chef, and Chef took quite a long time to get away. Um, we were just moving on, the production company was moving on. We'd adopted my daughter Billy and we were getting on with life.

• 19:06Speaker 00

  Hmm.

• 19:07Speaker 01

  And I think that's what you've got to do after, after a big knock. Get on with your life and try and think happy thoughts. And be with the people that love you, that wanna be with you, you know, work with people that wanna work with you. And then, you know, something will happen.

• 19:22Speaker 00

  I, I think, uh, uh, obviously you're Sir Lenny Henry, you, you, you know, you've got legendary status. I, I sometimes think in some ways you don't, people don't quite give you the flowers that you deserve in terms of. I, I look at it as, as a comedian of colour who grew up watching you. You had two, and I know I have had this. To a lesser degree than you have because you were out there kind of on your own doing it, right?

• 19:45Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 19:46Speaker 00

  Two of the big challenges, I think, are one, racism and discrimination and, and trying to overcome that. And dealing with that and dealing with people's preconceptions about you going on stage. And then the other thing is being a representative for your people. That is, those are two things that you can't ever really, you know, it's very difficult to, to be all things to all people. Do you know what I mean?

• 20:09Speaker 01

  I think you get lumbered with that if you're the only one. I mean, what's good now is that there are more people.

• 20:16Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 20:17Speaker 01

  Um, representing, but in the, in the early seventies, eighties, even into the nineties, it was me. And I, I felt, uh, I felt it was very difficult. When I was in Crucial, um, I, we designed a show for Curtis Walker. And it got turned down. And then when, when Gina was in my show going, I don't think so. Uh, we're playing Tina, we designed a show for Gina, uh, and it got turned down. And the reason given was, well, we don't, we don't need anybody else. We've got you. And I said, yeah, but in a minute, it's not, it should be, we should try and expand that, shouldn't we? Shouldn't there be more people doing their shows and, and. And, um, we had Miss Jocelyn, two seasons. We had Stephen Kamos, I think he had one season.

• 21:01Speaker 00

  Hmm.

• 21:01Speaker 01

  We had, um, Famalam, two seasons maybe, you know, in a minute there'll be a show. Well, you're great because you're doing lots of things. That's great. We need that, but we also need other people. So in, in the, in the ladder of intersectionality, when you're looking down the, the, the hole. We have to start pulling people up and going, come on, it's you two. We're gonna.

• 21:22Speaker 00

  Yeah, no, I don't agree with that.

• 21:24Speaker 01

  Oh, you think, you think it's.

• 21:25Speaker 00

  A lot, a lot of this.

• 21:26Speaker 01

  See, see ladies, gentlemen, this is what we're dealing with. Yeah, you guys need to stay down there because I'm doing all them shows. I'm doing everything.

• 21:39Speaker 00

  It's a very difficult.

• 21:40Speaker 01

  All them shows, it's me, catchphrase, me, Doctor Who, me, traitors, me, the news, me. And Hamza hanging out, me, strictly me with Rob, me. Not you, slam, padlock, super glue, park your car over it, leave it there. They don't move that thing forever because it's just, yeah.

• 22:09Speaker 01

  I broke the light.

• 22:12Speaker 01

  Sorry, Romesh, it's not that I'm bitter or anything.

• 22:15Speaker 01

  But really, not one phone call for the weakest link.

• 22:19Speaker 00

  You're not gonna come on the weakest link.

• 22:20Speaker 01

  Hey, listen, after watching Stephen Mangan, I'm not going anywhere near that show. That was, did you see that show? That show was the smartest people in television all vying for that one. Nobody was the weakest link and you, you had to let people go.

• 22:31Speaker 00

  I know.

• 22:31Speaker 01

  I can see how embarrassed you are. Yeah, the weakest link is a really clever person. You've got to go now. You were embarrassed at the end of that show.

• 22:38Speaker 00

  Well, at some.

• 22:39Speaker 01

  It was brilliant. That was my favourite episode was when you had all the really smart people from television.

• 22:43Speaker 00

  Sometimes, uh, no questions get, uh, wrong and they still got to vote for somebody and it's tricky.

• 22:50Speaker 01

  Really?

• 22:50Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 22:51Speaker 01

  Yeah, but because you're like the leader, you, you don't mind.

• 22:56Speaker 01

  Yeah, you are the weakest link goodbye.

• 22:57Speaker 00

  Yeah, sometimes you have to think, well, nobody's got any questions wrong. Maybe this is a personality thing now, you know, that's the big thing.

• 23:03Speaker 01

  I like it when you ask them all to vote and they, and it's clear as beef.

• 23:08Speaker 01

  Oh, you're going, yeah, they don't like you.

• 23:12Speaker 01

  I'm so jealous. How old are you? What are you? Forty-five now? You're forty-three?

• 23:17Speaker 00

  No, I'm forty-eight.

• 23:18Speaker 01

  Oh, you're not forty-eight?

• 23:19Speaker 00

  I am, yeah.

• 23:20Speaker 01

  Looking good on you there.

• 23:21Speaker 00

  Thank you.

• 23:22Speaker 01

  Yeah, man, you're getting better looking as you get older.

• 23:24Speaker 00

  Thank you.

• 23:24Speaker 01

  How's that work?

• 23:26Speaker 00

  It's if you, it's.

• 23:27Speaker 01

  If you moisturise, Len.

• 23:29Speaker 00

  The, the key is to look terrible for a long time.

• 23:31Speaker 01

  Well, you did that.

• 23:36Speaker 01

  You were a pioneer with that.

• 23:37Speaker 00

  Thank you, man. Thank you so much.

• 23:39Speaker 01

  You look rough, man, back in the day. That first appearance on Live at the Apollo, Jesus Christ, what were you thinking?

• 23:46Speaker 00

  You know what? Sometimes, sometimes my kids will pull those clips up and torment me for it, yeah.

• 23:51Speaker 01

  Yeah, I will do my homework, but check this out.

• 23:53Speaker 00

  Yeah, like dad, did you not know you were gonna be on TV?

• 23:56Speaker 01

  You didn't even comb your hair, man.

• 23:57Speaker 00

  I know.

• 23:58Speaker 01

  But you, hey, listen, all of that's gone right now. You look great on telly now. I bet you walk past every mirror and go, hey. No, man, you're running T's, that's good.

• 24:09Speaker 00

  I don't, I don't, it's, you, it, it's.

• 24:11Speaker 01

  Look at you, you didn't put any makeup on you. You already look like a million dollars. Look at you. How are you doing this?

• 24:16Speaker 00

  I feel like.

• 24:17Speaker 01

  Do you go gym? You go gym, right?

• 24:19Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 24:19Speaker 01

  Do you have a beauty regime? Yes.

• 24:22Speaker 00

  N- no, I moisturise, but.

• 24:23Speaker 01

  Do you moisturise your feet?

• 24:25Speaker 00

  Magnesium butter, I sometimes use.

• 24:27Speaker 01

  Yeah, you see, you're doing all of the things.

• 24:29Speaker 00

  Pedicure the other day. Do you have a, have you?

• 24:31Speaker 01

  I have a pedicure once a year.

• 24:33Speaker 00

  Once a year?

• 24:34Speaker 01

  Yeah, Lisa insists because she doesn't wanna be in bed with a werewolf. I have claws on my feet. Do you do this? Does anybody here have claws?

• 24:43Speaker 00

  No, my.

• 24:43Speaker 01

  After a certain period, do you pedicure?

• 24:45Speaker 04

  Yeah, well, not only pedicure, but like I'd like trim my toenails and like, you know, do the basics. But I think pedicures are quite rare for men.

• 24:51Speaker 00

  Yeah, they are quite rare.

• 24:53Speaker 04

  I think one a year is still good.

• 24:55Speaker 00

  Yeah, once a year, I, I think once a year probably puts you in the top five percent.

• 24:58Speaker 01

  When your claws are out here, you can't get your shoes on, that's what you gotta go.

• 25:02Speaker 00

  My, my dad, his feet were so bad, he could have scaled a rock face. Uh, like genuinely.

• 25:08Speaker 01

  Hands free.

• 25:11Speaker 00

  It was, it, it was insane.

• 25:15Speaker 01

  My dad never cut his nails.

• 25:17Speaker 00

  Oh my God, it was so horrible. And then I remember like when Lisa first came around, she saw, she said, it's very difficult for her to focus on anything else. You've got these talons. You know, like, uh, just him tapping them on the floor like a raptor. Nice to meet you.

• 25:34Speaker 01

  Oh, God.

• 25:35Speaker 00

  Mate, so bad, so bad.

• 25:37Speaker 01

  But I'm just, but you're, you're together now. You put yourself together.

• 25:39Speaker 00

  Yeah, you look great though. Look at you. Look at this. What, this is, you've got the, the seersucker.

• 25:43Speaker 01

  Suit, nice.

• 25:44Speaker 00

  Yeah, nice.

• 25:45Speaker 01

  I'll try. I, I mean, I think when you, when you get into show business and you can afford clothes, you do go through a period. Cause I was in light entertainment for a while.

• 25:54Speaker 00

  Hmm.

• 25:55Speaker 01

  And, um, the clothes in light entertainment are different to the clothes now. Comedians can go on stage like this or like this. You can be hip now, Universal Works or whatever, you can look cool. But back in the day, you had to wear a suit, a stage suit. So it was either a tuxedo that everybody wore or an adaptation of a tuxedo. The, the clip I hate of me is on the all winners final of New Faces in nineteen seventy-five. Where I was wearing a sky blue, um, tuxedo that had been made by a guy in Wall Heath called J Ray. And it was a sky blue tuxedo with very big lapels that you could land Concorde on. And, um, there were flares.

• 26:35Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 26:35Speaker 01

  It was just a dumpster fire.

• 26:37Speaker 00

  But you, but you always looked pretty well put together.

• 26:40Speaker 01

  Oh, but it wasn't great. I was wearing, I was sixteen and I was wearing forty-five year old comedian clothes.

• 26:45Speaker 00

  Yeah, I think when you, the young footage of you is, you are.

• 26:48Speaker 01

  Pretty brutal.

• 26:48Speaker 00

  Well, you're dressed like a proper grown up.

• 26:50Speaker 01

  Uh, but, but, but that's what I knew. And that's, I had a mentor called Don McLean from Crackerjack. And, um, Don McLean said, you've got to come to my tailor. So eventually I went to his tailor. And, uh, I got some comedian stage clothes and I literally looked like, for eight years, I looked like Frank Castor, George Roper or the. Little Irish fellow walked into a pub. I looked like those guys. And so when I, when I did the Lenny Henry Show and Through the Kind. Um, I met costume designers and they said, oh, you should be wearing this. And so suddenly I knew people who knew about clothes and had taste.

• 27:21Speaker 00

  I, I did a, I did a photo shoot for Edinburgh one year because I, I, I just feel like you don't, you sort of don't realise how you look. I did a photo shoot and my agents at the time, they, the photographer sent the photo to my agents and then they called me in for a meeting. And I thought the meeting was to choose which photo we're gonna use for the, for the poster, whatever the flyer is. And I went in and they, it was, it was a bit awkward. Like as I arrived, I felt, oh, this is gonna be, I actually thought I was gonna get dropped. Like that was the energy.

• 27:49Speaker 01

  Is that bad?

• 27:50Speaker 00

  And they said, um, we wanted to talk to you about your photos.

• 27:55Speaker 00

  And I said, yeah, she said, um, they're unusable.

• 27:58Speaker 01

  Oh, God.

• 27:59Speaker 00

  And I said, why? She goes, just because, she says, it's difficult, not the easy way to say it, because of

• 28:04Speaker 01

  Because of the clothes.

• 28:05Speaker 00

  Because of the clothes and how you look in the photos.

• 28:08Speaker 01

  Is this where the redesign of Romesh starts?

• 28:10Speaker 00

  No, they, they didn't have any positive, um, they just said, you need to, they started going to me, you need to have a capsule. They started to me how I should dress and blah, blah. But the problem is, I was broke, right? And, and I was just

• 28:21Speaker 01

  Yeah, but still, there's no excuse.

• 28:23Speaker 00

  I know. Listen, I'm just trying to slightly defend myself.

• 28:25Speaker 01

  I'm being your friend here.

• 28:26Speaker 00

  Yeah. I, I, you know, when I realised I really had a problem, I was, I was supporting Sean Walsh on tour. I turned, and I was teaching at the time. So I used to let, you know, do days and then go and do, I turned up and he was chatting to me. And then he goes, when are you getting changed?

• 28:40Speaker 00

  Right? I said, this is what I'm wearing on stage. I don't think he stopped laughing for about four minutes. He could not believe I was going on stage like that. Because I just sort of thought, it doesn't matter, does it? I hadn't realised it matters. Do you know what I mean?

• 28:55Speaker 01

  But I sense a change in you. The evolution of you has been extraordinary. The, the, the move from the guy who used to be a teacher to this. It's, it's, and it happens to, we all get a sense where we wake up and go, oh, I don't have to look the way I used to look.

• 29:07Speaker 00

  Hmm.

• 29:07Speaker 01

  I was broke before. And now I can actually afford to go and get a, a, you know, there was an Oswald Boateng thing, I'd have to stop that because it was, I had to sell my house. But there was an Oswald Boateng period for me of, every time I had a big gig, I thought, I've got to go get a Boateng suit.

• 29:22Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 29:23Speaker 01

  And, um, as I was walking towards, you could hear Oswald going, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, mu, ha, ha, ha, I've got him now. You know, and it was for a while. It was like Boateng. But, um, yeah, you can, you can look good. I mean, I remember talking to an American comedian, he said, you need to look better than they do.

• 29:40Speaker 00

  Hmm.

• 29:41Speaker 01

  You know, and lots of American comedians, maybe on their special, but generally when they're trying out material, they just, they're walking off the street and do sets. And, um, I always want to look good now on stage. So on my tour, you know, I always want to look like, yeah. Um. It's nice.

• 29:59Speaker 05

  Whenever fall comes back around, it always feels like a fresh start. This year, I've been layering in some styles from the new Lululemon fall drop. Because the weather is shifting and I find I have to be ready for the entire day and not just one part of it. Lululemon's fall line has some really versatile transitional pieces. So I can just wake up, throw on a matching set, add a jacket or a fleece and head out, knowing that I'll feel comfortable enough to go wherever the day takes me. Check out the new fall arrivals in store and online now at lululemon.com.

• 30:28Speaker 01

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  Now streaming on Disney+.

• 30:58Speaker 00

  Well, let's talk about the tour because you are, you're back on stage, on the road. You did, I saw, I read about you did Latitude. I, we did the same comedy festival.

• 31:09Speaker 01

  I did Road, yeah, Road Comedy Festival.

• 31:10Speaker 00

  You did Road Comedy Festival for Jared Christmas. Um.

• 31:13Speaker 01

  I loved it. That's a great gig. Freezing cold, outside, rain.

• 31:18Speaker 00

  It was perfect, wasn't it?

• 31:19Speaker 01

  The audience weren't even pretending that they were there to see me. They were just, thanks, Len, we'll be, we'll be out of your hair in a minute, man. Freezing cold.

• 31:26Speaker 00

  What made you decide to do stand-up again?

• 31:28Speaker 01

  Um, well, I haven't done it for 15 years. And every time we do a play, doing a play is great. So, Fences, Othello, whatever. Archie Oui. And I, I love being an actor. It's great. Um, but you, you do get a sense, there's a twinge every so often of,

• 31:45Speaker 01

  there was this other thing I used to do.

• 31:47Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 31:47Speaker 01

  Which I did for a very long, forty years or something. And what, whatever happened to that guy? Whatever happened to that thing? And you can't just break out in the middle of a play and start doing the type five. There was a moment in Othello when, um, my Iago started to laugh at something. And I, my face was desperate to be on the joke, but I had a bit to do. I couldn't be in on his joke.

• 32:12Speaker 00

  Right.

• 32:13Speaker 01

  I had to carry on doing the play. There was a moment at the National when, um, the set didn't work. The set was

• 32:20Speaker 01

  and the whole place stopped and we were all waiting while the play got fixed. And I thought, I would, I would by right be able to go, so where are you from? What do you do? What's your name? And what, really, what, what's that you're wearing? And, and I had permission to do crowd work. But a manager came up and said, ladies and gentlemen, the, uh, the, uh, computers aren't working and we'll be with you in a moment while the, while the IT people sort it out. And I was led off the stage because they knew I was about to do 10 minutes. And I thought, oh, great, I'm an actor now. I don't have to do it anymore. Uh, and then in the last year or so, I've just thought, I've done two one-person shows. That's a sign. August in England was a one-person show.

• 32:58Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 32:58Speaker 01

  Everything is brilliant. Every brilliant thing is a one-person show. And those are the things I've enjoyed the most in the last three years. Because I get to be the guy to talk to the audience.

• 33:07Speaker 00

  Yeah, send out attention thing.

• 33:08Speaker 01

  I'm telling a narrative story, but I can, if something happens, I can ease off and do a little joke. And then I loved it so much, I thought, I've got to, people kept saying, when are you going to do your stuff again, Len? And I didn't have any stuff. I hadn't written a set for ages.

• 33:24Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 33:24Speaker 01

  So I started to sit down and think, well, what would I talk about now?

• 33:27Speaker 00

  But he, it, it, during your career, what stand-up is, I mean, I know, you know, we're both massive prior fans and he, he was a bit, you know, I, I think he was obviously massively ahead of his time. But you think about what, what you were doing when you first started being on stage, that was joke, joke, joke, right? And you look at where stand-up is and you've talked about, you're actually quite a big student of stand-up, you know.

• 33:49Speaker 01

  Yeah, I love stand-up.

• 33:50Speaker 00

  Is, it's much more self-exploration, you know, you're trying to tap into what you really think about things. Has that changed? Like, is that, was that a challenge for you, like?

• 34:00Speaker 01

  I think the Edinburgh show, I mean, I, I go to Edinburgh as often as I can. So when I see Edinburgh shows, there's a difference between the Edinburgh show and the, the show you do if you're on tour, doing the Lenny show, you know, because the Edinburgh show is curtailed, it's forty-five minutes an hour. Um, it's quite good if it's got a big, unless you're a hardcore comic, it's quite good if you've got a beginning, middle and end. Uh, and a climax that ties in with the beginning of the show, a narrative theme running throughout. But for the comics that I love, who just come on and go, I can do no more. And they do lots of jokes. That's, I love that. I mean, I've seen Seinfeld, Marla, Mario Joyner, uh, emo. I saw all the eighties peak comedians just coming on and kill for an hour and then saying, dropping the mic and going, good night. You know, I saw Chris Rock.

• 34:44Speaker 00

  And you feel exhausted from laughing.

• 34:46Speaker 01

  You just kind of, you've laughed so much, you kind of, I've got to, I've got to go and have oxygen. Um, so I love that. Whereas it seems to me that when you do an Edinburgh show, I've got to work with the director, your directors are great, but what they tend to do is take the jokes out.

• 34:58Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 34:58Speaker 01

  And go, can, can we, let's work on the scaffolding. And I go, well, you, we need the jokes as well. Yeah, yeah, we need the jokes, but we're going to work on the scaffolding in the show so that it has a cohesion. Um, and that's problematic when you're doing a tour and you go to great Yarmouth. And they go, what's this scaffolding shit? Where's the jokes?

• 35:16Speaker 00

  I know, man. I know. Because you've got to take it on the, yeah, I know exactly what you mean.

• 35:20Speaker 01

  Suddenly you have to take the Edinburgh show on the road and it's all scaffolding and not very many jokes.

• 35:24Speaker 00

  And then you're going, and, and at the end of the day, isn't that what it's all really about? You have to say that.

• 35:30Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 35:31Speaker 00

  Do you know what I mean?

• 35:31Speaker 01

  No, no. And listen, I love the Edinburgh shows. I thought, um, London's show was great. There's been many, many shows where I thought, yeah, I want to, I want to do a show like that. But the thing where you, where you drink the Kool-Aid and decide you're going to do an Edinburgh show, because it's, that's the thing that I'm, I had to steer clear of when I was doing this because I just thought, it's, you need to just make people laugh.

• 35:49Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 35:49Speaker 01

  And so most of the Edinburgh-y type things have slightly gone.

• 35:53Speaker 00

  Yeah, got it.

• 35:53Speaker 01

  And now it's lots of jokes.

• 35:54Speaker 00

  How close is it now to what it's going to be? Like, have you got it? Have you written it?

• 35:59Speaker 01

  There's, I'm doing more work in progress, but I, I'm really enjoying it. I loved Latitude. I've really enjoyed Road. And yeah, we're getting to a place where it's getting a bit tighter and.

• 36:07Speaker 00

  Yeah. Latitude's hard though, I think. I, I like Latitude. It's a big tent and, and, and then the, the audience noise doesn't hit you.

• 36:17Speaker 01

  It's really weird when people are on cushions like this.

• 36:19Speaker 00

  I know.

• 36:20Speaker 01

  People are like that watching.

• 36:21Speaker 00

  That's what I mean. And, and then, and then you go on and particularly like, you know, a lot of the time when you hit Latitude, you're trying, you're trying out new stuff.

• 36:30Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 36:30Speaker 00

  Or newer stuff. Not new stuff, but newer, like, you know, I was on the tour cycle of like, I'm going to go on the road later on in the year. And I went and did the stuff. By the way, tell me if you think, think this is unacceptable. Lisa and the kids came, right? That's not unacceptable. I'm all right with that. Right? They said, um, can we come, can we watch you do the stand-up? I said, yeah, of course. They sat, so you know where the audience is?

• 36:54Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 36:54Speaker 00

  Then there's a barrier.

• 36:55Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 36:55Speaker 00

  They sat on the bit in front of the barrier.

• 36:57Speaker 01

  Wow, like at Live Aid.

• 36:58Speaker 00

  Horrendous.

• 36:59Speaker 01

  Like the one Bonner gets up on stage.

• 37:00Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 37:01Speaker 01

  They thought you were going to get them on stage and start doing material about them.

• 37:03Speaker 00

  I don't know what they were thinking. So I delivered the show like this. And then I met them at the side of the stage. I said, what the hell did you think you were doing?

• 37:10Speaker 01

  And what did they say?

• 37:11Speaker 00

  Well, obviously Lisa was furious. She thought she was being supportive and throwing it back in her face.

• 37:16Speaker 01

  Were the kids playing Playstation and stuff?

• 37:18Speaker 00

  They were sort of like this. And they're like, oh, this guy.

• 37:20Speaker 01

  Did they love you?

• 37:21Speaker 00

  Why is this old man chatting?

• 37:22Speaker 01

  Do they love you though? Do they, do they come and see you and laugh and stuff?

• 37:24Speaker 00

  Yeah, they do. They do. But like, I, I, it's that thing of, you know, they sort of, I, I sometimes I feel guilty for talking about them, but then when I don't talk about them, they're like, how come?

• 37:35Speaker 01

  Yeah, what am I, chopped liver?

• 37:36Speaker 00

  Yeah, exactly.

• 37:37Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 37:38Speaker 00

  So you, you enjoying doing the work in progress then?

• 37:40Speaker 01

  Um, work in progress is hard because you don't know where you're going to, where they're going to book you. Oh, yeah, we booked you in a cellar in Bracknell. Okay. I haven't been in a cellar for a long time. You, you rock up and there's like sixty people like that. We drink, be funny, be funny, be funny. And it's good. It's, it's good.

• 37:55Speaker 00

  Do you ever die on your, you can't? Do you die on your arse now?

• 37:58Speaker 01

  No, I've got the old rope principle. Have you, you know that club Old Rope?

• 38:02Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 38:02Speaker 01

  Where, where, if you do old material, you have to touch the, I touch the rope a lot. If it's not going well, if they're not liking any of the old stuff, I'm holding that rope like a mofo. I'm just roping. Um, but what's great is it's, it's, it seems to be working. So it's lovely. Um, yeah, I think be prepared if they don't like stuff. I've always, I mean, I, when I was doing them. When I did my first live at the Apollo, I did twenty shows to warm up for it.

• 38:27Speaker 00

  Hmm.

• 38:27Speaker 01

  And um, there were, there was a lot to throw away. But you've got to do that. That's what we do. That's the job. And I only got that from when I went to America, actually. Cause when I was doing my sets before, we'd write it and we'd sort of get it right in the first fifteen shows of the tour, you know, you'd. You'd do it, you'd rehearse it and then run it. And then the first fifteen shows of the tour is when you go, that bit's not working so well, let's cut that.

• 38:51Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 38:51Speaker 01

  Um, and then when I went to America and started to see Seinfeld and Chris Rock and people, they were trying out gear. In Catch a Rising Star and the Laugh Factory, and they would just have a piece of it. And what was that guy's name, George? George would have a clipboard and he'd just go, yep, they don't like that one. He'd just cross it off, a bit like Jimmy Carr does now.

• 39:10Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 39:11Speaker 01

  Oh, good, they like that. He would comment on the jokes that they liked and the jokes they didn't like. And I thought. And the longer I was in America watching these people, I thought, oh, this is a whole thing where you try material out before you do your proper tour. And so when I came back.

• 39:24Speaker 00

  So, so hold on, so you, your first tour date would be the first time you've done it in front of an audience then? Is that what you're saying?

• 39:30Speaker 01

  When I was before.

• 39:31Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 39:32Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 39:32Speaker 00

  Shit.

• 39:34Speaker 01

  I remember Phil McIntyre coming to see me when I was doing opening, opened at Leicester, I think, and I had all these cards.

• 39:42Speaker 01

  I had all these cards with everything, all these cues written on the cards. It was all over. He said, you can't go on like that. He's like a bloody copper. Needs to get all, get rid of all these, what's the matter with you? I said, well, I don't know, yes. Well, you can't have all this all over the stage. It's like walking Ryman's. And then, so um, there was an expectation for me to learn it. And so, and my brain doesn't want to learn stuff that isn't for my brain. My brain is like a Catskills comedian from Old School, New York and go, yeah, that's quite good. You can keep that. Don't do that. Why are you still doing that shit? Don't do that anymore. Okay, yeah, that's working fine. That's great. Keep that. No, no, don't do that about the wife. That's not working. You know, you know, my brain's like that.

• 40:18Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 40:18Speaker 01

  So when we're trying stuff out, my brain's going, well, don't learn that.

• 40:22Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 40:23Speaker 01

  My brain literally says to me, even before I'm on stage, as I'm walking on stage, well, that bit about the thing isn't gonna work. Well, just, yeah, try it out. Fine. Yeah, fine.

• 40:31Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 40:31Speaker 01

  And then as I'm walking off stage, told you. My brain's like that.

• 40:34Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 40:35Speaker 01

  My brain has done a lot of shows.

• 40:36Speaker 00

  My brain's like that.

• 40:37Speaker 01

  It just knows what's gonna work.

• 40:38Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 40:39Speaker 01

  And you're only trying things out to see.

• 40:43Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 40:43Speaker 01

  Because you never know. Cause there's some bits where you go, well, that's never gonna work. And that's something that kills.

• 40:49Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 40:50Speaker 01

  People are, oh, I love this show. That routine about recycling, man, that, that's the one you were like, well, I'll do this, but this isn't gonna go in. You know, two years later, it's still in the show. It's still killing, recycling, but it's still killing. You know, um, Jay Lenny is still doing a routine about his dad not being able to work the VHS recorder.

• 41:11Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 41:11Speaker 01

  They don't have VHS recorders anymore, but it kills. So he's still doing it.

• 41:16Speaker 00

  Yeah. Um, how, do you know how many dates you're doing?

• 41:19Speaker 01

  I don't know, but it goes right through till November.

• 41:21Speaker 00

  Twentieth of September till the third of November.

• 41:24Speaker 01

  Yeah, finishing at the Hantley Empire.

• 41:26Speaker 00

  Hmm.

• 41:26Speaker 01

  We're going all over the place.

• 41:27Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 41:28Speaker 01

  It's great. There'll be more dates next year.

• 41:30Speaker 00

  Great.

• 41:30Speaker 01

  Um, cause it's, I think it's gonna, it keeps evolving. So I think, um, I like the idea of that.

• 41:35Speaker 00

  Um, we've got a question from my mother for you.

• 41:37Speaker 01

  Ah, hello, mum.

• 41:38Speaker 00

  Uh, let's hear it. I don't know what this is.

• 41:42Speaker 02

  Hi, Lenny. I can't believe you are on the podcast. I know you are great as impressions. Rami does an impression of me, but I don't think it sounds anything like me. I'd love to know what's your favorite impression to do. Can you please give my son a lesson? And you have a great day. Love to meet you again. I have met, seen you at once and we have a wonderful day. God bless. Bye bye.

• 42:15Speaker 01

  Your mum's awesome. You do realise that, don't you?

• 42:19Speaker 00

  I know, I know.

• 42:20Speaker 01

  My mum wouldn't come anywhere near my, oh, right. So are they going to pay me? No, I'm staying at home.

• 42:27Speaker 01

  I don't know how much Chris Tarrant gave her to be on Tis Was, but it was in, it was in the hundreds. They had to send a car for her. She had a, I think they bought her a dress. There's a thing, my memory of Tis Was was my mum coming on in an apron with gravy. You know, dumpling gravy on her thing. No, when I rewatched it the other day, she's in a new dress that Tarrant must have said. Well, well, Mrs. Emily, we'll buy you a dress. And she was, she was in car, dress, hair done. That's how my mum came on Tis Was. So your mum is awesome for doing what she does for you.

• 42:58Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 42:58Speaker 01

  She's a saint.

• 43:00Speaker 00

  She's lovely. She's amazing. And also she saw me, you know, she saw me watching you, you know, we were, you were on.

• 43:07Speaker 01

  She used to watch Teddy as a family.

• 43:08Speaker 00

  Yes, a lot of the time and I, and we would, you were on in our house all the time, man. It was really good.

• 43:14Speaker 01

  That's good.

• 43:15Speaker 00

  And I thought, I.

• 43:16Speaker 01

  Would you sit there and go, he's no Tarbuck. I'll watch this though.

• 43:19Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 43:19Speaker 01

  He's no, he's no bird of man.

• 43:21Speaker 00

  We loved you and I remember I just sitting there as a kid going, I wanna be on everything like Lenny.

• 43:26Speaker 01

  And there, and here you are.

• 43:29Speaker 00

  Thanks, man.

• 43:29Speaker 01

  Your mum's great. And tell me, do your impression of your mum, I think I've seen it already, but do you impression of her?

• 43:34Speaker 00

  Well, now we've just heard her.

• 43:35Speaker 01

  No, your mum, she's legit, she's got a legit beef about this impression. Can I hear it? Cause I've just heard her voice.

• 43:41Speaker 00

  Darling, all I wanna know is.

• 43:43Speaker 01

  Eh eh.

• 43:44Speaker 00

  Why are you doing that?

• 43:45Speaker 01

  Because it's not.

• 43:46Speaker 00

  What's wrong with it?

• 43:46Speaker 01

  Can I hear her voice again?

• 43:48Speaker 00

  Hold on, let, if, let me try and replicate it. If you just play a little bit.

• 43:52Speaker 02

  Hi, Lenny. I can't believe you are on the podcast.

• 43:56Speaker 00

  Hello, Lenny. I can't believe you're on the podcast.

• 43:59Speaker 01

  Do you want people to diss you in the street? Do you want people to go, why are you doing that to your mum? You sound like Spike Milligan in the seventies.

• 44:08Speaker 01

  What's the matter with you, man? She raised you, she fed you, she looked, took you to school. And you're doing this, listen, I had exactly the same thing. Lenny, I don't really talk like that on television. Why are you doing me on television? You want me to beat you?

• 44:23Speaker 01

  I will take this wheelchair and batter you with it if you ever do me on television again. I had that. I had Oprah, I, Christopher Asante stopped me at London, he's the guy who used to play Matthew on um, Desmond's.

• 44:35Speaker 00

  Oh.

• 44:36Speaker 01

  Lenny, hello. I want to talk to you about your impression of African people.

• 44:43Speaker 01

  Two hours later, does not sound like my people. Why are you doing this to me? I mean, just on and on. Two hour lecture from Matthew. I was so.

• 44:52Speaker 00

  What did he say, what did he say, said Desmond? In Africa, we have a saying, that was, that was.

• 44:56Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah, that was what he used to, he was brilliant, very, very funny. But he was, oh, I had such stick from him.

• 45:02Speaker 00

  Hmm.

• 45:02Speaker 01

  What I was doing, I mean, I, I conceded to not wear the grass skirt on OTT and have the tribal makeup when I did Katanga, my friends. That's what I conceded. Cause my brain was going, yeah, but that, that bit works. Katanga works. You gotta keep doing that. That's funny. They like that. And uh, then I dropped it eventually.

• 45:18Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 45:19Speaker 01

  Took a while to drop it though.

• 45:21Speaker 00

  It's very funny though. Um, now let's talk about, uh, obviously, we haven't talked a lot about you, the fact that you're a great actor, incredible actor.

• 45:28Speaker 01

  Thanks.

• 45:28Speaker 00

  Congratulations on being such a great actor. Uh, can you tell us a bit about the split up, your new BBC drama?

• 45:33Speaker 01

  Um, the split up is a um, a brand new drama. It, uh, it, it comes out of Abby Morgan's. Uh, TV series, which is called The Split, that was very, very popular. And this is a kind of reboot of that with a, a twist. It's a, it's a South Asian uh, law firm, divorce firm in Manchester. And it's just about this firm and the people that are in it. And Rita Arias in it and Sanjeev Bhaskar's in it, Sindhu V is in it. And it's pretty much one of the most diverse shows I've ever seen or been in. It's an extraordinary show. Uh, they need some more brothers in it. I was the first one, but it was, it was, um, not that I've got beef, but it was, um, it was, it's a brilliant show.

• 46:17Speaker 01

  And Sanjeev is lovely in it. Sindhu V is funny in it. Rita's lovely in it. It's very sexy, Mawans in it. It's like.

• 46:26Speaker 01

  A takeover for an hour. It's moving. It's got that kind of will they, won't they romance angle. Where your mum, my mum would love it. Your mum will love it.

• 46:36Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 46:36Speaker 01

  Because it's romance. It's people that look like us, um, in romance, being big business. It's like, you know. If Suits was in Manchester with South Asian.

• 46:46Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 46:46Speaker 01

  Heritage people.

• 46:47Speaker 00

  So you're, you're a podcast host now, right?

• 46:49Speaker 01

  I'm a po, yeah, I play Alex and he's a podcast host and he's in an interracial relationship. He's been in a relationship with Jane Horrocks' character for years. And they've got a show called Marriage Works. And uh, the inciting incident for the, uh, for this episode is that uh, there's trouble in that marriage. And they've got a brand. And if anything happens to the brand of their show, um, it's all gonna kick off.

• 47:12Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 47:12Speaker 01

  And it's um, there are no small parts, darling, but it's um, it's a coffin and a spit.

• 47:19Speaker 01

  But um, Jane and I give it our all. Look, we would have liked more scenes, but you know, Rita and Sindhu and Mawan and Sanjeev get the lion's share of the show.

• 47:32Speaker 00

  Sure.

• 47:32Speaker 01

  But it's beautiful. It's beautifully done. And I think it'll be addictive if you watch.

• 47:36Speaker 00

  Yeah. Um, are you?

• 47:38Speaker 01

  Starts soon.

• 47:39Speaker 00

  Yeah. Drama and comedy, the relationship between those two things for you, where are they now? You know, in terms of your, I mean, you're obviously focusing on stand up at the moment, but.

• 47:47Speaker 01

  Um, stand up will always be, you know, stand up is always gonna be there. I mean, you might take a, a gap. Um, you know, if after this show, I think there's a prospect of uh, another tour and then maybe Australia, New Zealand. Um, I know, I'd like to do America, um, but there'll be probably a two year gap. And then when I'm seventy, I might do a, a, a, a kind of, I'm seventy kind of show.

• 48:11Speaker 00

  Right, got you, got you.

• 48:12Speaker 01

  So, um, and I'm enjoying the stand up now. I'm enjoying that thrill. I'd forgotten what it was like, that thrill of, oh my god.

• 48:19Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 48:19Speaker 01

  You know, before you go on in the dressing room, oh, you know, that thing in the, when the support acts are on and you're listening to the speaker going. I, I wanna do the show now. This is my audience. Why are they being so good?

• 48:31Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 48:31Speaker 01

  Who are they? Who, ah. And then you go on and you're miserable. You say to the support act, well done, that was really great. That was fantastic.

• 48:41Speaker 00

  It's like, this is, this is what it's like being a touring comedian, listening to the support act.

• 48:48Speaker 00

  Oh, that's good. A round of applause.

• 48:53Speaker 00

  Oh, they're doing, it's a bit like my bit.

• 48:55Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 48:56Speaker 00

  Oh, they're doing really well.

• 48:58Speaker 01

  That's a lot like my bit. Yeah, yeah.

• 49:00Speaker 00

  Oh, they're really fucking smashing it, aren't they? And then it sort of descends into absolute just.

• 49:05Speaker 01

  Paranoia.

• 49:05Speaker 00

  Oh, it's horrible.

• 49:06Speaker 01

  Means post identity wallow. I have to kick myself up the arse and get going again.

• 49:12Speaker 00

  Um, with the, you know, we talked about you wanting to, to bring people up and your passion for diversity. And, and you talk, you're talking about that in the split up.

• 49:20Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 49:21Speaker 00

  That's, split up is a thing where it's diverse, but the diversity isn't what the show's about, right?

• 49:27Speaker 01

  No, it's not.

• 49:27Speaker 00

  And, and that's like a, that feels like those, those sort of things are exciting, right? Where the, this is, this is a story, it's not, it's not a South Asian story, it's not, this is a story.

• 49:38Speaker 01

  It's about a law firm.

• 49:39Speaker 00

  Yeah, and the.

• 49:40Speaker 01

  They're good as well.

• 49:41Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 49:41Speaker 01

  They're making, they're, they're a very successful law firm. They're dealing divorce mainly, they have a lot of clients, they're pulling in, you know, I think they mentioned a 10.5 million deal, a 25 million deal. They're, they're running things, this firm is running things. Sanjeev is an outgoing boss and his daughter, this is a spoiler, might not get the gig she thought she was gonna get. There's all kinds of beef going on in this show. There's romance beef, there's career beef, and it's nothing to do with who they are, what they are. You will see their culture in this show, and this is my dream show. Because you'll, you get to see their culture and who they are as people, what they believe in, but that's not what the show is about.

• 50:20Speaker 00

  Yeah, that's great.

• 50:21Speaker 01

  I think that's great.

• 50:21Speaker 00

  It's exciting, man.

• 50:22Speaker 01

  So for me to, you know, for you to have your own talk show, for you, for me to be, to be doing whatever it is I want to do next. You know, you want it to be not just about, I'm from Jamaica and Jamaicans talk like this and we ate this kind of food and I grew up. That's great, that informs who you are, but your work should be your work.

• 50:41Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 50:42Speaker 01

  I think. And so when I'm acting, I did Archie Ooey, I'm not sure they've ever had a black Archie Ooey before. But it's a canon play, so if somebody offers you a canon play, what, you're gonna turn it down because you have Jamaican heritage? No, you do the play because it's a play.

• 50:55Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 50:55Speaker 01

  You wanna show what you can do. And I think, somebody offers me a Pinter play, I'm not gonna turn it down because there aren't any black people in Pinter plays. Why would I wanna be in Betrayal or The Birthday Party or something?

• 51:05Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 51:06Speaker 01

  So that's the, the future, I think.

• 51:09Speaker 00

  Right, we're, we're gonna play a little game with you, Teleni Henry.

• 51:12Speaker 01

  Love games.

• 51:12Speaker 00

  This is misquoted. We've got some quotes for you, some of them you said them, some of you didn't, some of them we've slightly changed what you said. You just need to figure out if you said it or not. Okay, here's your first one, good luck, zero stakes though. Dying on stage is the worst pain of all, did you or did you not say that?

• 51:29Speaker 01

  Bank, um, I, I don't think I did say that.

• 51:34Speaker 00

  No, you didn't, you actually said, this is the real quote, it's sort of an adaptation of a real quote. Dying on stage is nothing compared with growing up in a working class household in Dudley.

• 51:44Speaker 01

  I said that, yeah, I said that, it's true, man. When you grew up in my family and literally with a hairline crack down the middle of your house, on my, our house was on top of a cesspit. Um, on the street, the clever people at the waterboard had put the corner house on top of a cesspit. So that every summer when there was a flood, we'd be floating waist deep in other people's poo, um, until they came and fixed it. That's how I grew up. So being on stage at Battle Hill Social Club with people calling me a nigg nog was nothing compared to that. I got over myself, I finished the set and walked off the stage and went home.

• 52:17Speaker 00

  Oh, yeah. I, I had a thing where somebody was, it was just after my dad had passed away. And, and I wanted to get back on stage, and so I did a gig up the creek. And I was on stage and there was a guy in the front row and he just started saying every now and again, bud bud ding ding to me. I just started like saying this to me, but he wasn't saying it loud enough for the audience to hear, right? So then I'm like making a decision, this guy's clearly been a racist prick.

• 52:47Speaker 00

  If I mention this, it's gonna inject attention in the room and then I'm gonna have to explain that, then I'm gonna have to deal with him. And then I might, and then I've got to, then there's all this awkwardness in the room. Or I could just pretend this is not happening and get through the set, and I did the second thing. I just, because he wasn't, he wasn't disrupting the gig, he, he, he didn't wanna disrupt the gig, he just wanted me to hear that he was being racist, do you know what I mean? So I just did the set and walked off, and then sometimes you think to yourself, I should have just thrown the gig and just destroyed this guy, do you know what I mean? It's like, shit like that, man, it's like, I mean, now it, it doesn't happen. That's what happens when you become a national treasure, but, but.

• 53:25Speaker 01

  Do you know, by the way, viewers, I have to agree with him.

• 53:30Speaker 01

  It's very rare that I get that kind of racism now on stage.

• 53:34Speaker 00

  Um, okay, here's your next one. I'm slowly transforming my house into an exact replica of House Lannister in Game of Thrones.

• 53:44Speaker 01

  At Castlery Rock.

• 53:46Speaker 00

  Did you say that or did you?

• 53:47Speaker 01

  No, man, I, listen, I would have loved to be in Castlery Rock. I'd like the Game of Thrones chair to be just right there, me and Sanjeev chilling. Um, you know, I, I'd love to be in the, in the Castlery Rock household. And I like all the, because you know, when you get to, when you become a sir in real life, you don't get a hundred men in a castle. You just get to be a sir and have a digestive biscuit.

• 54:08Speaker 00

  Did somebody tell you that's what was, you were gonna get?

• 54:10Speaker 01

  I literally thought I was gonna get some horses, a hundred men, some knights.

• 54:14Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 54:14Speaker 01

  My own castle in Dudley and a flag, but no. It's literally a handshake from the Duke of Edinburgh and, you know, a biscuit, a cup of tea.

• 54:22Speaker 00

  Online abuse.

• 54:23Speaker 01

  Some online abuse and I say, Lenny, you sold out, well thankfully darling, otherwise I wouldn't go.

• 54:30Speaker 00

  Uh, well apparently you did say this. Evening standing in 2013, the answer to the question, your biggest extravagance. Were you, were you doing a big renovation in 2013?

• 54:42Speaker 01

  What, what did they say I was doing?

• 54:44Speaker 00

  Transforming your house into House Lannister, this is what you said you were doing.

• 54:48Speaker 01

  Oh, no, no, no, I don't think I was, no, that's not true.

• 54:51Speaker 00

  All right, fine, you're just, you know, trying to get through the interview. All right, so here's your next one.

• 54:56Speaker 00

  No blacks, no Irish, no dogs in every single place that you went. So if you're a black Irish wolfhound, you were buggered.

• 55:02Speaker 01

  That's my joke, uh, Kim Fuller wrote that, I, that, yeah, that's me. I also did the ear, my ears are, ears are alight joke. Uh, and then they stole it for a commercial and I never got paid, never got no money for that. Um, you know.

• 55:14Speaker 00

  Is that true?

• 55:15Speaker 01

  My ears are alight, that was an advert on the telly and they, they nicked it from Live and Unleashed. Um, and, uh, yeah, I did that, no blacks, no Irish.

• 55:23Speaker 00

  What was your comeback for the ears are alight thing?

• 55:26Speaker 01

  My ears are alight, it was just a, a whole routine that ended with that.

• 55:28Speaker 00

  But did you not get any, but did, did you not, did you not take legal action?

• 55:32Speaker 01

  No, you can't, there was a guy go around doing bits of deacon for ages and I just thought, oh, let him get on with it. Because in the end, in terms of people nicking material, and speaking of somebody who did lots of jokes that were trad horror back in the day. I just thought, I've got no skin in the game here, I can't say don't take material because I did.

• 55:50Speaker 00

  Okay, here's your next one, that's such a great story. Uh, I'm trying to get in shape, spherical is not an option.

• 56:00Speaker 01

  I don't think I said that.

• 56:02Speaker 00

  Guardian 2010.

• 56:04Speaker 01

  I said that?

• 56:04Speaker 00

  Hmm.

• 56:05Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 56:05Speaker 00

  Obviously you're looking, you're looking in great, Nick.

• 56:07Speaker 01

  I was big, I think, I think I had a thing, I used to do lots of mu, lots of jokes, I think you.

• 56:13Speaker 01

  I used to, I was big.

• 56:14Speaker 00

  Hmm.

• 56:15Speaker 01

  And I, I, because I'm type two diabetic, my doctor said, well, you've got to start thinking about your life choices.

• 56:23Speaker 00

  Hmm.

• 56:24Speaker 01

  And it was about not, not having the party bucket and not, I was, I love, in my family, seven of us. My mum always cooked for the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards. She always thought they'd show up for a meal and so, and we had to finish it.

• 56:40Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 56:40Speaker 01

  Our job was to finish all the food every single time. And, um, we had, we, we, when we had Saturday soup, which is the soup you have on a Saturday. Um, we got a churroin each and we had to finish it and you'd fall asleep and you'd wake up after the wrestling. It was like literally being drugged. Um, so my whole life was eating everything on the plate all the time. And when I got into show business, it just, it just got worse because I was eating.

• 57:08Speaker 00

  Unlimited resources.

• 57:09Speaker 01

  I was eating other people's food and I had money to do that. So I would have the curry, I'd have the Chinese, I'd have, and I just got bigger and bigger and bigger and then my, my doctor said you gotta.

• 57:17Speaker 00

  So what, so now, are you, how careful are you now? Like, how careful would we be today with what you're eating and stuff like that? Is it something you're always thinking about?

• 57:25Speaker 01

  I went out for a meal in, uh, when I was doing, um, try density, because I, I went through a diet thing in, in LA. And I went out for a meal with Pat Proft, who used to write the Naked Gun, uh, movies. And Pat Proft did this thing where he orders a meal and he, and he was a runner. He'd order a meal and the meal would arrive and he'd eat half. And leave, and take the other half home. I don't do that, but I kind of tend to not eat what I used to eat.

• 57:52Speaker 00

  The problem is eating a lot is great, isn't it?

• 57:54Speaker 01

  That's great.

• 57:55Speaker 00

  It's so, it's so good.

• 57:56Speaker 01

  You're like Henry the Eighth. More food!

• 58:00Speaker 00

  Love it, man.

• 58:02Speaker 01

  Chicken legs, throwing the chicken legs at the dogs.

• 58:05Speaker 00

  Love it, I do it the same with sort of little sticks that you get with tofu. Um, okay, here's your last one. At my funeral, I want them to play Funny Man by Ray Stevens.

• 58:15Speaker 01

  No, that's not me.

• 58:18Speaker 00

  It's not, you said.

• 58:22Speaker 00

  I'm being cremated, so I think hot, hot, hot.

• 58:29Speaker 01

  Come on, come on, man, that'd be great.

• 58:33Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 58:33Speaker 01

  Yeah, I would have, I'd have the Mighty Arrow, the Carnival remix.

• 58:38Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 58:38Speaker 01

  Playing as everybody walked out, because I think it'd be funny. And I, I, I've been to a few funerals, people in my family, um, my brother Seymour, I lost my brother Seymour, lost Hilton, um, and we tend to have a joyous funeral, because in Caribbean culture, we have this thing called nine nights, where you celebrate the person who's gone for nine days and all that kind of thing. And the first time I saw it, I didn't understand it. Who are all these people coming in the house, don't they know dad just died? And it was like tradition, I didn't know that. People showing up with bottles of Jack Daniels and stuff, you know, plates of food, hello, we're here, come on, where's the party? Playing records, I just didn't understand it. And mum said, you don't understand because you were born here. So, um, now I realise that your life should be celebrated, not your death.

• 59:23Speaker 00

  Do you know when I first read about the story you just told was in the quest for the big wolf?

• 59:29Speaker 01

  That's right, yeah, my.

• 59:30Speaker 00

  Because you told your, the comic book you did.

• 59:32Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 59:32Speaker 00

  And, and you describe about when your dad died and all of that.

• 59:35Speaker 01

  And I didn't understand, I didn't understand the tradition because I've been, I was born to be in Dudley.

• 59:39Speaker 00

  Hmm.

• 59:39Speaker 01

  And I just thought, this is, this is, this is a, these people are interfering in our lives at the worst possible time, but they were there to help my mum through the process of grieving. They weren't there to just get pissed and throw up and dance to Curtis Mayfield. They were there to help my mum and it's a tradition. And it's been, it's been, it comes from Africa, it's in Africa, it's a third world tradition. And I didn't know that because I was raised in Dudley and nobody taught me about my heritage or my cultural, uh, being, until I sorted out myself. So, you know, you've got to learn these things about who you are, otherwise you never know.

• 1:00:14Speaker 00

  Could you, we like to end the podcast on a big moment.

• 1:00:18Speaker 01

  Good luck.

• 1:00:20Speaker 01

  Good luck.

• 1:00:21Speaker 00

  Could you share with us the best advice you've ever received, or some good advice at least?

• 1:00:28Speaker 01

  Best advice?

• 1:00:28Speaker 00

  Hmm.

• 1:00:29Speaker 01

  Lots. Uh, Ben Alton, it's okay to be racy and sexy, just don't be racist and sexist.

• 1:00:40Speaker 01

  Steve Martin, don't never leave your money in the dressing room. Take your wallet on stage with you. Um, Max Pyrgos, when you get on stage, walk around, let them have a look at the suit.

• 1:01:00Speaker 01

  No, no, no real advice at all.

• 1:01:02Speaker 00

  No, those were great.

• 1:01:03Speaker 01

  My mum said, my mum said, um, after I died, the hideous death, um, in Leicester, I came home and I was really upset. My mum said, what's the matter with you? I had a terrible night. What do you mean you have a, they didn't laugh? She said, well, go to Wolverhampton, get some jokes.

• 1:01:23Speaker 01

  Well, she's right.

• 1:01:23Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:01:24Speaker 01

  Go to Wolverhampton, get some jokes, get on your horse, start again. She's right.

• 1:01:28Speaker 00

  Um, look, it's been an absolute honour. As you know, I've said this to you before, but I wouldn't be doing comedy if it wasn't for you. So, thank you so much for coming on.

• 1:01:37Speaker 01

  Thank you for letting me come on, I really appreciate it. And you're an inspiration. And there's, um, there's some kid that looks exactly like you.

• 1:01:44Speaker 00

  I hope not.

• 1:01:45Speaker 01

  Watching television, watching television and watching, and seeing you on all these shows that you do. And they're all going, I want to do what Romesh does. I probably won't do as much as he does, but I want to be exactly like Romesh and get them, get a TV show of my own and run things on telly. And that's what you're doing, congratulations.

• 1:02:04Speaker 00

  Thank you, man. Uh, please give it up for Selene Henry. Proper legend. Thank you so much for watching and listening to this episode. Before you go, if you've enjoyed this episode and you've not subscribed, that's a bold decision, crazy behaviour. Follow and subscribe to the Romesh Wang and Ethan Show wherever you listen. It helps me, really, like, really helps me, it helps the team. And it costs you absolutely nothing. We drop episodes every Monday and Thursday. Mondays, I'm joined by great guests. Thursdays, my mum Shadi joins me to answer your questions and family dilemmas. I'll see you Thursday with mum who, let's face it, is who you're actually here for. If you've got a problem you want to solve or a story you want to share, send it to [email protected],

• 1:02:47Speaker 00

  voice note or text us on 07731 623355. We can't promise good advice, but you might end up on the show. See you soon.

• 1:02:58Speaker 02

  Oh, shut up, Romesh.

• 1:03:01Speaker 03

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  From the studio that brought you WandaVision.

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  The Vision returns for the final chapter of the groundbreaking trilogy.

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  How is this possible?

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  Don't miss the two-episode premiere of Marvel Television's Vision Quest.

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  Nothing bonds a family together quite like Mortal Jeopardy.

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